“10·9” Zion Church Case Progress Report: Eight Zion Church Pastors and Co-workers Face False Criminal Charges of “Fraud” and “Illegal Business Operations” (July 30, 2026)

(Rights Defence Network Information Centre report) On July 30, 2026, according to information from Zion Church, this website reported: The “10·9” Zion Church case has entered its 295th day. As of today, eight Zion Church pastors and co-workers remain detained at the No. 1 and No. 2 detention centres in Beihai, Guangxi, facing false criminal charges of “fraud” and “illegal business operations.”

The case was transferred to the People’s Procuratorate of Yinhai District, Beihai City, for review and prosecution on June 18, 2026. On July 17, 2026, within less than a month, the case was suddenly brought before the People’s Court of Yinhai District, Beihai City, without the defence lawyers’ knowledge and without giving them an opportunity to submit defence opinions.

Over the past week, the defence lawyers and family members of the eight Zion Church members still detained in the Zion Church case successively received the indictment submitted by the procuratorate to the court.

According to the indictment, Wang Lin, Gao Yingjia, Yin Huibin, Wang Cong, Liu Zhenbin and Lin Shucheng were accused of “jointly committing the criminal act of fraud,” and it alleged that they “conducted illegal religious activities and defrauded believers of more than 10 million yuan in ‘offerings.’”

Wang Lin, Wang Zhong and Wu Qiuyu were accused of “jointly and intentionally committing the criminal act of illegal business operations,” with the allegation that they “from 2020 to 2025, without permission, used information networks to illegally sell ‘course packages’ containing religious and other content, collecting more than 2 million yuan in proceeds from illegal business operations.”

The indictment further alleged that “Wang Lin played a major role in the criminal activities of fraud and illegal business operations; Gao Yingjia and Yin Huibin played major roles in the joint criminal activity of fraud and were principal offenders; the others were accessories.”

In response to the above accusations, Pastor Jin Mingri, the founding senior pastor of Zion Church and chairman of the board of Zion Bible Institute (ZBI), who was released earlier this month, said in a recent media interview: “Whether the church supports preachers willing to serve the Lord is decided by the board of deacons and the board of elders. Our preachers are not doing this for profit, and they certainly have not used deception in pastoral activities to cause the church’s believers to suffer losses.” Therefore, the charge of “fraud” does not stand.

“ZBI is a Bible institute established within Zion Church. Before 2018, Zion Church worked with other house churches to provide theological education. After the church came under pressure, in order to prevent other theological seminaries from being implicated, the training of preachers and key church workers was moved inside the church. Some Bible institute courses charged a registration fee of 300 yuan. This money was not tuition, but was intended to encourage students to commit themselves to and invest in the training. After some students completed the courses, the registration fee was also refunded; most of the institute’s expenses were covered by church offerings.” Therefore, the charge of “illegal business operations” does not stand.

By classifying offerings, support for pastors and internal religious education in church pastoral work as part of a criminal case, the case-handling authorities have effectively criminalised the religious activities that have long existed in China’s house churches. This is not only an overt trampling on the freedom of religious belief guaranteed to citizens by China’s Constitution, but also an arrogant and presumptuous violation of God’s sacred law and supreme authority.

The indictment claims that there are statements from victims and witnesses. In reality, some believers were misled or even coerced by the case-handling personnel, leading them to provide false testimony in a state of panic. These believers are willing to testify again and explain that the church did not deceive them, nor did pastoral care cause them to suffer economic losses. Moreover, many members of Zion Church and numerous students of Zion Bible Institute can testify that offerings are not “fraud” and Bible training is not “illegal business operations.”